Tom Lawrence has to go down as one of the unluckiest Rangers players the club have possibly ever employed, certainly in the modern era.
It seemed like a sound piece of business in July 2022 when Lawrence made the move to Ibrox on a free after departing Derby County, who had just been relegated to EFL League One following a horrible season.
And the attacking midfielder got off to a flier at Rangers, contributing two goals and two assists in his first four Scottish Premiership matches for the Glasgow giants.
But before he could strut his stuff against Celtic in last season’s September Old Firm derby, he was ruled out for the long-term with a serious knee injury. That cruelly ruled Lawrence out for the rest of Rangers’ campaign as he missed 11 months of action.
After returning during the Germany pre-season tour and then getting minutes in three consecutive Premiership games, Lawrence has unfortunately encountered more frustrating Rangers setbacks since.
His problems flared up again versus Real Betis in the Europa League clash at Ibrox and only returned for six games before suffering yet another injury against Hearts.
Lawrence started that one last midweek as he looked to gather momentum again. But he slumped to the pitch in frustration with a fresh knee issue and was forced off.
The 29-year-old Rangers star will now miss huge games against Aberdeen and Celtic in the Viaplay Cup Final and Premiership respectively and won’t be seen fit again until after the winter break.
Lawrence is a great player on his day but the Welshman’s injury nightmares make for some eye-opening Rangers statistics, as we outline three below.
Tom Lawrence minutes per game at Rangers
First up are his minutes per game with Rangers since joining from Derby last year.
As per transfermarkt, Lawrence has only donned a Light Blue jersey 20 times over a season-and-a-half. That totals 1,110 minutes of action on the pitch for Lawrence.
But when you do the maths, it means the Ibrox ace has conjured up just 55.5 minutes per game, not even lasting an hour on average when stepping onto the pitch for Rangers.
Tom Lawrence wages per game with Rangers
According to Salary Sport, Lawrence is earning £22,000 per annum as a Rangers midfielder. Not bad for some – but certainly not for the club on a financial level.
He signed for Rangers 74 weeks on July 8, 2022 and thus has earned £1.62m at time of writing. We’ve mentioned above that Lawrence has a meagre 20 appearances for Rangers under his belt. So it means the Welshman has cost the Glasgow outfit roughly £81,400 per game played.
It’s an eye-watering amount of money for a player who sadly spends more time on the treatment table than showcasing his abilities in front of the Rangers faithful.
Tom Lawrence percentage of Rangers games missed
In a very ideal yet unrealistic world, Tom Lawrence would have been available for every Rangers match since his free transfer.
That number would total 84 competitive matches played by Gers since the start of the 2022/23 campaign. So how much of that has Lawrence actually missed?
Let’s not beat about the bush, Lawrence has been unavailable via injury for a whopping 75 percent of the Rangers calendar.
Lawrence is contracted with Rangers until 2025 so potentially has another year-and-a-half with Rangers. But if he continues to be injured more than available for selection under Philippe Clement, then a decision may be made over his future sooner rather than later.
